


stand by me

by ultraviolentae



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Gen, but no romance at all!!, my little adaptation of the movie with the dreamies, noren bromance bc i can, nothing else i can say about this tbh SO, there's swearing and crude language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 09:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15045626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultraviolentae/pseuds/ultraviolentae
Summary: In all our lives there’s a fall from innocence a time after which we are never the same. It happened in the summer of ‘92, a long time ago, but only if you measure it in terms of years.





	stand by me

**Author's Note:**

> okay so months back i watched stand by me once again and thought it'd be a nice idea to do an au with the dreamies in it,, well i kept it in mind and FINALLY!! finished it gkjfdj 
> 
> this is an adaptation, i only used the dialogue from the script and even then changed many bits and pieces. i also didn't copy what i saw from the movie in many parts and did my own thing, overall it's pretty much like the movie but you can see the differences here and there. 
> 
> N E WAYS hopefully i made it some justice!!

_**I** was twelve going on thirteen first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1992. A long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town, there were only 1281 people, but to me it was the whole world._

 

Renjun heads towards their special hanging spot, he jumps over the fence of Mark’s house and heads towards the little treehouse in the backyard. He could already hear the loud chatter coming from inside it, his friends never bothered to keep the noise down even if they had gotten many complaints for it.

He’s let in after doing their secret knock that Donghyuck had created a few years back to keep outsiders from coming in, it wasn’t as if that’d actually make any difference. They all knew it was secretly to make the whole hangout place sound cooler than it actually was.

“Sup.” Jeno says right away and scoots so Renjun could sit next to him, which he does with a gentle smile on his face.

They were all sitting in a circle playing cards but Renjun couldn’t feel bothered to join so he simply watches, observing his friends more than he paid attention to the actual game. Donghyuck flicks Jaemin’s forehead when he wouldn’t admit to having lost to finally shut him up and, suddenly, both boys were rolling on the old wooden floor play fighting. It was so typical that no one even bothered payed attention to it, except Renjun who found the scene too amusing to miss.

Jaemin grabs Donghyuck neatly combed hair and ruffles it. Somehow, that seems to hurt Donghyuck more than the way Jaemin had bitten his arm just a few seconds previously. Image was everything, at least for Donghyuck who enjoyed looking his best at all times even when fooling around with them.

Lee Donghyuck was the craziest guy to hang around with, he’d always come up with the craziest and most original pranks and adventures. Being near him was always a surprise, even if he was highly annoying at times, it was impossible to hate him or want to get rid of him. But Renjun had felt like that was facade, a way to make everyone and himself forget that he didn't have much of a chance in life. His dad was given fits of a rage, one time he held Donghyuck’s ear to a stove and almost burned it off. Being surrounded by madness from early age did no good to anybody.

“Knock it off you two.” Mark kicks Donghyuck’s back and rolls his eyes.

Lee Mark was the leader of the gang. He brought some peace and order when it was needed, his aura was calming. Being near Mark was healing, the boy might’ve been awful with words, but he didn’t need to anyways. Everyone just trusted him, no questions asked. And, in return, he helped solve problems with his smart brain.

“Let them be, if they beat each other to death then that’s their business.” Jeno shrugs, eye focused on the game.

Renjun analyses his friend intensely. Jeno was a good looking boy, popular both for his looks and from coming from a bad family. Everyone knew he’d turn out bad, including himself. But Renjun still hoped they were all wrong, Jeno was too good to end up like the rest of his family. It just wasn’t fair, but he had never had the guts to voice his thoughts to the other. He didn’t quite know why.

A loud knock snaps his out of his daze, he blinks twice and cocks his eyebrow up with curiosity. “Knock the secret knock!”

“I forget the secret knock! Just let me in!” It was Chenle, his oldest friend. They had met before Renjun had even turned three because their mothers were awfully close with each other, and from then on Chenle had become his little diary. He couldn’t recall a single thing he hadn’t told Chenle, they trusted each other with their life. “Come on you guys, open up!”

Jisung is the first to soften up, as per usual whenever it came to Chenle. Renjun knew Chenle was Jisung’s weak spot, it was the most obvious thing ever. The boy was quiet, didn’t voice his thoughts very often, but his actions spoke louder than words. He cared for Chenle as if he were his blood brother. It was endearing, really.

“Oh man, you guys are not gonna believe this. This is so boss. Oh man, wait till you hear this, wait till you hear this. You won't believe it! It's unbelievable! Let me catch my breath first, though. I ran all the way from my house…” The boy says in-between pants, he stops talking for a few seconds and tries to take deep breaths to calm himself down better.

The rest of the group kept on playing while the boy collected himself, Jaemin and Donghyuck had finally stopped trying to kill each other and had gone back to playing as well.

“Okay so-“ Chenle tries but the rest pretend to not hear and keep going as he hadn’t even spoken. “Hey! Come on, guys, listen to me!” Still nothing, he crosses his arms in front of his chest and pouts. “Okay, forget it. I won’t tell you.”

Jisung sighs deeply and puts his deck down. “Alright, guys, alright. What is it, Le?”

Chenle smiles brightly, clasps his hands together and clears his throat before beginning to explain himself. “Okay, great, you won't believe this sincerely.”

“What is it?!” Jaemin says, impatiently.

“Can you guys camp out tonight? I mean if you tell your parents, we're gonna tent on my backfield?”

Mark nods. “Yeah, don’t see why not.”

“I think so. My dad's kind of going through one of those phases. You know, he's been drinking a lot lately, but I think it should be alright.” Jeno nods along with Mark and then looks over to Chenle who grins at that.

“You got to man, sincerely! You won't believe this! Can you, Renjun?”

The boy shrugs. “Yeah, probably.”

Donghyuck lays on the floor and stares up at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. “So what are you pissin' and moaning about, Chenle?”

Chenle ducks his head down slightly and moves closer, his voice comes out soft, almost like a whisper. “You guys wanna go see a dead body?”

It’s quiet, they could even hear the noise of the river a bit North now that everyone was silent. It’s Mark who recovers first, the boy squints his eyes at Chenle. “Say what now?”

“Well I was under the porch, digging, you know..” He starts. “Y’know, trying to find the jar of pennies I put underneath my house in the beginning of the school year. I still haven’t found it, but while I was down there I overhead my brother speaking to one of his friends.”

They all look at Chenle with both curiosity and fear, a dead body? It was a serious matter, especially in a small town like theirs where nothing really happened ever.

“Well, turns out that kid, Park Jihoon? Yeah the one who is about our age that has been missing for three days? They found him, just a few towns away, near the train tracks. I don’t know how, they didn’t say. But they refuse to go to the police so it’s our chance!”

“Jesus Christ, man. If they would have known you were eavesdropping they would have killed you.” Jeno groans while massaging the sides of his head. “Park Jihoon you say?” Chenle nods. “Christ.”

Jaemin clicks his tongue and lays down next to Donghyuck who hadn’t budged from his spot. “He must have started walking on the traintracks and just followed them the whole way.”

“Yeah. Yeah, right. And then after dark the train must have come along  and then Oh smacko!” Donghyuck says, a little bit too excited and overdramatically. Renjun can’t help but cringe at that.

“Yeah. Hey, hey guys! I bet you anything that if we find him we'll get our pictures in the paper!” Jisung speaks up, bright smile on his face as he speaks.

Donghyuck sits up and looks at the youngest with sparkly eyes. “Yeah, we'd even be on TV!”

“We'll be heroes!” Jaemin sits up as well and smiles widely at Donghyuck who nods right away.

“Yeah!” The other exclaims while smiling back.

Chenle fidgets with his shirt and bites his lip nervously. “I don't know. Johnny will know how I found out…”

“He's not gonna care because it's gonna be us guys who find him. They probably pin a medal on you, Lele!” Jaemin encourages.

“Yeah, you think so?”

He nods. “I know so!”

Jeno stands up to get their attention, he looks at all of them one by one before speaking. “What'll we tell our parents?”

“Exactly what Chenle said. We all tell our parents we're crashing over at Chenle’s.” Marks turns to Chenle. “You tell your parents you're sleeping over mine’s. Then we'll say we're going out to the amusement park the next day or something.”

Jisung claps for a few seconds, the boy was radiant. “That's a plan and a half!”

“But if we do find the kid's body over they'll know we didn't go to the amusement park! We'll get in trouble!” Chenle fights back, unsure of the whole plan as if he hadn’t been the one to suggest it in the first place.

“Nobody is going to care because they’re all going to be too fascinated with our discovery! Everyone’s just going to be relieved he was found.” Jeno ruffles Chenle’s hair lovingly to try to make the other less nervous about the whole ordeal. “My dad would kick my ass anyway. But it’ll be worth it!”

“Hell yeah!” Donghyuck and Jaemin say at the same time and hi5 each other.

“Let's do it!” Jisung joins their little celebration. “Renjun?”

“Sure why the hell not, right?”

Jisung looks over to Chenle and gives the other his best puppy eyes, just like Chenle was Jisung’s weak spot, Chenle’s was Jisung. So it was no surprise that the other almost breaks at that. “I don't know.”

“Lele!” His best friend says cutely and bats his eyelashes at him.

“Come on, Lele!” Jaemin joins in.

The boy huffs but nods nevertheless. “Alright! Alright!”

Renjun wanted to share his friends' enthusiasm but couldn't. That summer at home he had become the invisible boy after his older brother, Sicheng, died in a Jeep accident back in April. Four months had passed but neither of his parents had seemed to be able to put the pieces back together again. It was draining, he felt too drained to just about anything. But even so, he couldn’t miss out on an adventure like that.

 

 

 

He walks down the empty road under the scorching hot sun thinking of nothing and instead focusing on the ground he’d rhythmically step on. The sound of someone jumping right in front of his snaps him awake, Renjun looks up to find Jeno smiling widely back at him. “Thanks a lot!” He exclaims to the truck driver that had drove him all the way there.

Jeno puts his arm around his friend and pulls him closer to him. “What’s up?” Renjun questions when he notices the other’s mysterious smirk.

“Injunnie.” Renjun hums. “Wanna see something?”

The other shrugs nonchalantly. “Sure, what?” Without saying anything else, Jeno starts running towards a more hidden place at the back of some sort of storage building. “C’mon dude, what is it?”

His friend looks around hesitantly before reaching out for his backpack and pulling out a shiny gun. “Stole it from my old man's bureau. It's a forty five.”

Renjun positions the gun and mimics its shooting sound. “You got shells for it?”

“Yeah, took all that was left in the box. My dad will think that he used them himself shooting at beer cans while he was drunk.” Jeno looks at the other with a sly smile.

“Is it loaded?” Renjun side eyes him, he didn’t quite trust Jeno with such things no matter how smart his friend proved himself to be.

Jeno scoffs. “Hell, no! What d'you think I am?”

“Alright.” The boy cocks his eyebrow up and pulls the trigger, except Jeno was wrong and the gun actually fires much to both boy’s surprise. “Shit!” They say simultaneously, Renjun’s first instinct was to run as fast as he could away from that place before someone found them there. “Let’s get out of here! Let’s go!”

His friend complies while laughing it off, but Renjun couldn’t find the situation funny at all. They turn around the corner at the end of the street and finally start to slow their pace down now that they were safe from trouble. “Oh man, you should have seen your face! It was hilarious!” Jeno cackles loudly behind Renjun who stomps his feet harshly on the sidewalk.

“You knew it was loaded, dickhead! I'll be in trouble now and it’s your fault.” Renjun snaps, face red with anger.

“C’mon Injun it was nothing no one saw it.” He says softly and tries to put his hand on the boy’s skinny shoulder.

Renjun snatches it away not even a second later. “I don't care. It was a mean trick, Jeno.” He growls while pouting.

Jeno places both his hands on his friend’s shoulder to force him to stop moving with a bit more strength so that the other couldn’t simply force them off. “Hey, Renjun, I didn't know it was loaded. Seriously.”

The other seems to cool down slightly at that, his shoulders relax and his eyes soften. “You swear?”

“Yeah, i swear.” Jeno nods reassuringly.

“On your mother's name?”

He smiles. “Yeah.”

“Even if she goes to hell because you lied?” Renjun quirks both his eyebrows up and a smile tugs at his lips faintly.

“Yeah, I swear!”

“Pinky swear?”

Jeno kisses his pinky and holds it up in the air. “Pinky swear.”

Renjun smiles widely and lets Jeno puts his whole arm around his shoulder like usual. As they walk down the road in silence, someone decides to disturb them. Suddenly Renjun’s cap was no longer sitting on top of his head and instead on Jaehyun’s head.

“Hey, girls, where are you going?” The older smirks smugly and adjusts the new item on his head.

“Hey, come on man, my brother gave me that!” He shrieks and desperately tries to get the hat back.

Doyoung appears behind him and, not so subtly, shoves him so he’d lose his balance as he walked past. “And now you given it to us.”

Jeno stares at the scene with a scowl. “You're a real asshole, you know that?” He growls angrily, glaring at the older boy’s even if he knew they weren’t scared of him.

“Your brother's not very polite, Jaehyun.” Doyoung feigns hurt as he places his hand atop of his chest.

“Now Jeno. I know you didn't mean to insult my friend.” Jaehyun shoots his brother fake puppy eyes.

Doyoung snorts. “I know he didn't mean to insult me. That's why I gonna give him the opportunity of taking it back.” He says and waits for Jeno to say something, but he doesn’t, so he decides to shove the younger against the concrete floor. “Take it back!”

Jeno groans out in pain as the male puts his whole weight on top of him and grabs his shoulder harshly. “Come on man, stop it.” Renjun pleads but doesn’t dare intervene since he knew it’d be useless. “You’re hurting him!”

“You bastard! Leggo of me!” Jeno grumbles to no avail.

Doyoung presses his lips near the boy’s ear. “Take it back.” He demands.

Jeno closes his eyes tightly and scrunches up his nose. His pride wasn’t as important as coming out of there with his body intact so he forces himself to give up. “Okay, I'll take it back! I take it back.”

“There. Now I feel a whole lot better about this. How about you?” Doyoung gives him a fake smile, Jeno nods weakly. “Good.”

Jaehyun waves them off with the cap on his hand. “See you later, girls.”

The two boys stare at them as they fade in the distance with frowns on their faces. Jeno felt like he had failed Renjun by not managing to get the stupid hat back, he knew he didn’t stand a chance against them but even so it pissed him off to no end.

“Come on, just forget them.” Jeno finally whispers and puts his arm back around Renjun’s narrow shoulder. They look at each other for a few seconds before the other finally nods reluctantly. 

 

 

“What do we need a pistol for anyway?” Chenle ponders out loud.

“It's spooky sleeping out at night in the woods. We might see a bear.” Jeno explains as if it was the most obvious thing in the entire world. “Or a garbage can.” He looks over to Renjun with a knowing look making them both laugh hysterically.

“I brought a comb!” Chenle exclaims randomly and takes out the object from his pocket.

Jaemin snorts and ruffles the boy’s hair. “What do we need a comb for?”

“Well, if we get on TV we wanna look good, don't we?” Chenle shrugs and Jisung nods.

It’s quiet for a while. They walk alongside the train tracks to not get lost, Renjun would often make sure that no train was coming by putting the palm of his hand on top of the metal to check for vibration.

“How far d'you think it's gonna be?” Donghyuck asks.

Mark furrows his eyebrows deep in thought. “If we follow the tracks all the way, it might be about twenty miles. Sounds about right Renjun?”

The boy nods. “Yeah, yeah. Might even be thirty.”

Chenle didn’t seem so happy with those news, the boy groans dramatically and puts his head on Jisung’s shoulder. “Gee. Maybe we should just hitchhike.”

“No way, that sucks.” Donghyuck smacks the back of his head and flinches away when Chenle threatens to smack him back.

“Why not? We'd be there by sundown.” He shrieks noticing how everyone but Jisung wasn’t taking him seriously, he wanted to get their attention but it didn’t seem to be working.

Donghyuck scoffs. “That's a pussy move! Did your mother ever have any kids that lived?”

The younger shoots him a puzzled look. “What d'you mean?”

“Jesus.” The other mumbles under his breath and ignores Chenle’s confused whining.

 

 

Chenle pokes Mark’s shoulder to get the boy’s attention. “Hey, I'm kind of hungry, who's got the food?”

Everyone looks around at each other. “Oh shit! Did anybody bring anything?” Donghyuck scans his friend’s bags helplessly.

Jaemin shakes his head. “Not me. Jeno?” The boy shakes his head as well.

“Well, this is great. What are we supposed to do? Eat our feet?” Donghyuck cries out and rubs his temples to keep calm.

“Do you mean, you didn't bring anything either?” Renjun bites his bottom lip anxiously.

The boy shakes his head. “This wasn't my idea. Why didn't you bring something, Chenle?!”

“What am I supposed to do? Think of everything? I brought the comb!” The boy fights back.

“Oh great, you brought a comb. What d'you need a comb for if you die of starvation?”

Mark yells loudly to cut the two off. “Hey, hey, hey, hey! Let's see how much money we've got.” He says calmly. Everyone puts forward the coins they had in their pockets and waits patiently for the oldest to count it all. “ Well, this isn’t so bad think we can get some stuff at that one shop a mile or so away.”

“Train coming.” Renjun warns and goes to the side of the track away from danger.

All of them move, except for Donghyuck who apparently found it hilarious to freak everyone out. “Come on, Donghyuck!” Mark demands.

“No. I'm gonna dodge it.” He smiles devilishly.  

Jaemin paces around the place nervously. “Come on, Hyuck. Get off the tracks you're crazy.” He pleads.

The other pretends to not hear his friends and eyes the moving object only meters ahead. “Train-dodge. I dig it.” He says to himself.

“Get the hell off the tracks! You wanna get yourself killed?” Jeno shouts filled with anger. “Come on, man.” He growls just as he pushes Donghyuck to the floor away from the tracks.

The train passes by them muffling Donghyuck’s complaints for a few seconds before it’s gone. “Don't need no babysitter!” The boy punches Jeno’s chest and glares, hard, but his friend decides to simply ignore his protests and keep on walking as if nothing had happened. Everybody else follows behind him, and so Donghyuck decides to give up seeing as it was pretty useless to keep going.

 

 

 **“NO TRESPASSING KEEP OUT”** The sign in front of them read.  No Trespassing was enforced by the junkman, and his dog Chopper -- the most feared and least seen dog in their tiny town. Legend had it that the man had trained Chopper not just to attack, but to attack specific parts of the human anatomy. Thus a kid who had illegally trespassed the junkyard fence might hear the dread cry:  'Chopper, sic balls!' But at that precise moment neither were anywhere in sight.

“Donghyuck’s crazy.” Renjun declares seemingly out loud.

Both him and Jeno look at him from afar as he used his sleeping bag as a machine gun. “Come on men! Move it out!” The boy shouts.

Jeno smirks. “Yeah.”

“He won't live to be twenty I bet.” Renjun adds as they walk closer to the rest of their group. “Remember the time you saved him in the tree?”

The boy nods. “Yeah, you know I dream about that sometimes. Except in the dream I always miss him. I just get a couple of his hairs and down he goes. It's weird.” Jeno rambles.

Renjun looks to the side so he can take a better look at his friend. “Yeah. That's weird. You didn't miss him. Jeno Lee never misses, does he?”

“Not even when the ladies leave the seat down.” He wiggles his eyebrows jokingly and then licks his lips. “Hey, wanna race?”

“No. I don't know.” The boy sighs.

Jeno smacks his shoulder lightly. “Right to the pump man, come on.”

“I'm-” He pouts. “I'm kind of tired…” But, just as he finishes talking, Renjun starts sprinting forwards towards the infamous pump gaining some sort of advantage over Jeno who was known to be a quick runner.

“You're a dead man, Huang!” Jeno threatens mid laughing.

When they reach the final destination, after Jeno obviously somehow still managed to win, both boys look at each other while panting loudly. A smile slowly forms on Renjun’s face that gets mirrored by Jeno who smacks his shoulder again before putting his arm around it.

 

“Have you guys been watching the Mickey Mouse Club lately?” Donghyuck questions as he throws a coin inside an old rusty can. “I think Herin's tits are getting bigger.”

“Think so?” Chenle tilts his head trying to remember if Donghyuck was, in fact, correct.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Jaemin mumbles.

Renjun rubs his chin and then nods. “Yeah. I think he's right. I've been noticing lately that the H and the I are beginning to bend around the sides of her T-shirt.” He gestures the way boobs bounce making everyone laugh out loud.

“Herin’s tits are great!” Jisung chirps in.

“Yeah.” Everyone says in sync

They keep throwing coins at the can and booing whoever missed the big hole for quite some time until Mark breaks the silence. “This is really a good time.”

Jeno smiles brightly. “The most.”

Mark didn't just mean being off limits inside the junkyard or lying to their parents or going on a hike up the railroad tracks. He meant those things too but  there was more to it and they all knew it. Everything was there, all around them. They knew exactly who they were and exactly where they were going. It was grand.

 

Donghyuck catches Jisung off guard when he squirts water from his mouth onto his friend’s face, everyone laughs but the now wet boy. “Great! Spit at the younger kid!” He whines and rubs the wet side of his face.

“What time is it, Mark?” Jaemin pokes the boy’s wrist.

He looks at his watch for a few seconds before looking back at his friend. “Uhm… It's a quarter after one.”

Chenle perks up right away .”We better go get the food. The junkyard opens at three. Chopper will be here!”

Donghyuck puts his hand on the boy’s nape and pulls his closer to him. “You go. You can pick us up on the way back.”

“I'm not going alone! We should all go.”

Jaemin shakes his head. “I'm staying right here.

“I'm not going!” Jisung states and crosses his arms on top of his chest.

Jeno shushes them. “Girls call it. We'll flip for it.”

The boys flick their coins and then look around to check who would have to be their little slave for the day. Donghyuck lets out a hyena laugh and points his index right in Renjun’s face. “You lose, Jun! Renjun loses!” Renjun glares at him and spits in his direction but sadly misses. “Go get the provisions you morphradite!”

“Don't call me any of your mother's petnames.” Renjun growls

“What a wet end you are, Huang.”

He comes closer to Donghyuck just so that he can kick his friend’s knee. “Shut up!”

Everyone looks at each other before starting to sing in choir. “I don't shut up, I grow up. And when I look at you I throw up!”

Renjun flips them all off. “Then your mother comes round the corner and she licks it up.” He shouts before turning his back and heading off to the shop.

 

 

“Ain't you Sicheng’s brother?”

Renjun looks up from the food he was holding towards the cashier. “Yes, sir.”

“Shame what happened to him. Bible says 'In the midst of life we are in death'. Did you know that? I lost a brother too.” Renjun ducks his head down with sadness. “You look like your brother. People ever tell you that?”

“Sometimes.” He whispers weakly.

“I remember the year he was All-Conference. Quarterback he played. Boy could he throw. Father God and Sonny Jesus!” Renjun doesn’t know if the man had kept on talking for he had zoomed out, memories of the life before his brother passed away flashed inside his head and muffled the real world around him.

 

_“There'll be some scouts at the game tomorrow.” His father declares._

_Sicheng twists his mouth. “I don't know, Pap.”_

_Renjun looks at his brother and then his father. “Dad, can I have the potatos?”_

_“Are you going to see Jane after the game? I think she's a lovely girl.” Their mother butts in, totally ignoring Renjun’s previous request._

_The boy blinks a few times before trying once more. “May I please have the potatoes?”_

_“Don't talk to the boy about girls. He shouldn't be thinking about girls. This is the biggest game of his life. Sicheng, when you're out there tomorrow-”_

_“Pap, did you read the story that Renjun wrote?” Sicheng cuts him off and smiles at Renjun. “Renjun wrote a story. It is really good.”_

_His mother looks in his direction, finally seeming to remember his presence in the room. “What did you write sweetheart?”_

_The attention doesn’t last very long, however. “See? That's what I'm talking about. Football takes concentration. You start in on the girls and his mind's all over the place.”_

_Sicheng ignores his father and ruffles Renjun’s locks full of fondness. “Injun, I really liked it. It was great.”_

 

“D'you play football?” He hears and stirs back to reality with a hum. “Do you play football?”

Renjun shakes his head and places the goodies on the counter. “No.”

“What do you do?”

The boy looks ahead with unfocused eyes and shrugs. “I don't know.”

 

 

When he comes back to the same spot he had left his friends at, Renjun finds it to be empty. He looks around trying to figure out where they kept themselves hidden totally forgetting about the owner of the place. “Hey! Hey you kid! What're you doing there?! Come over here! You, you!” The man yells as he sprints after Renjun who ran for his life towards the metal fence. “Come back here! Come back here goddammit! I'll sic my dog on you!”

Behind the fence stood his friends chanting for him to run faster away from the possible threat of the infamous dog. “Run, Renjun, run!”

Renjun screams out in both fear and muscle pain and then throws himself on the metal fence, climbing over it just before the dog catches onto him. He falls onto the ground with a loud thud and then eyes the supposedly scary dog, which turned out to be way less scary than expected. If scary at all.

“That's Chopper?” Jisung cackles.

“Come on, Choppy! Kiss my ass, Choppy! Come on bite shit! Come on, Choppy, sic balls!” Donghyuck teases and presses his buttlocks against the fence. The dog, obviously, bites onto the jeans but even Donghyuck managed to be stronger than he was.

“Hey you kids! Stop teasing that dog! You hear me? Stop it!” A voice sounds in the distance and then the owner shows in their field of vision. “I’ll beat your ass teasing my dog like that!”

“Yeah? I’d like to see you try to climb over the fence to get me, fatass!” Donghyuck challanges and pokes his tongue out.

“Don't you call me that, you little tin-weasel peckerwood loony's son!” The man growls angrily.

Donghyuck suddenly goes stone cold and presses his face against the fence, the goofy smile of before had turned upside down into a full frown. “What did you call me?”

“I know who you are. You're Lee Donghyuck. Your dad is a loony. A loony up in the nuthouse. He took your ear and he put it to a stove and he burnt it off!”

The boy’s mouth twitches with anger. “My father stormed the beach at Normandy.”

“He's crazier than a shithouse rat.” The man presses “No wonder you're acting in the way you are. With a loony for a father.”

“You call my dad a loony again and I'll kill you!” He threatens and punches the fence.

The man chuckles. “Loony, loony, loony.”

If it wasn’t for Jeno holding him back, Donghyuck might’ve actually climb up the fence once again just to beat the man to a pulp. “I'm gonna rip your head off and shit down your neck!” He shouts, so loud that Jisung covers his ears.

“He wants you to go over there so he can beat the piss out of you and then take you to the cops.” Jeno whispers against the boy’s ear to try and calm him down.

“You watch your mouth, smart guy! Let him do his own fighting!”

Mark, who would usually keep a calm and collected posture, glares at the man. “Sure you only outweigh him by five hundred pounds, fatass!”

“I know all you guys. And all your fathers are gonna get a call from me! Except for the loony, of course.”

Donghyuck tries to fight against Jeno’s restrains. “Son of a bitch!”

They somehow force Donghyuck to walk away from the man even when he was still fuming. “He ranked my old man!” The boy whines and kicks a rock on the pathway.

Renjun often wondered how he could care so much for his dad who practically killed him, and yet he couldn't give a shit about his own dad who hadn't laid a hand on him since he was three and eating bleach from under the sink.

Jaemin clicks his tongue and pats his friend’s back. “What d'you care what a bad old pile of shit like him says about your dad? Forget it, alright? Just forget it.”

“I'm sorry if I'm spoiling everybody's good time. ” Donghyuck lets out in between sobs.

Chenle joins Jaemin in patting the boy’s back with a sympathetic look. “It's okay, it's okay, man.”

“I'm not sure it should be a good time.” Renjun mumbles.

Jeno furrows his eyebrows at him. “You saying you wanna go back?!”

“No.” Renjun shakes his head. “Going to see a dead kid, maybe it shouldn't be a party.”

“Yeah, like if he's really bad like all cut up with blood and shit all over him; I might have nightmares!” Chenle shudders at the image he had just described.

Mark cringes. “Come on, Le, shut up.”

But the boy doesn’t seem to want to stop, no matter how much it all disgusted him .”You know like all guts and eyeballs jumping out.”

“Shut up, Chenle.” Jisung begs, and if Jisung was against him then Chenle really was by himself, so he had no choice but shut his trap.

 

 

“Do you think I'm weird?” Renjun asks Jeno when they were by themselves once again.

Jeno doesn’t hesitate one split second before answering full of honesty. “Definitely.”

Renjun pouts. “No man, seriously. Am I weird?”

“Yeah.” He looks at his friend and shrugs. “But so what, everybody is weird.” Jeno pauses, looks ahead at the rest of the group and then back at Renjun who was currently analysing his shoes. “You ready for school?”

“Yeah.”

“Junior High. You know what that means. By next June we'll all be split up.”

The boy perks up and looks at his friend full of confusion. “What are you talking about, why would that happen?”

“It's not gonna be like grammar-school, that's why. You're taking your college-courses and me Jisung and Donghyuck and whatnot will all be in the shop-courses with all the rest of the dummies making ashtrays and birdhouses. You gonna meet a lot of new guys. Smart guys.”

Renjun scoffs. “Meet a lot of pussies is what you mean.”

“No man. Don't say that, don't even think that.” Jeno frowns filled with irritation.

“Not going to meet a lot of pussies, forget it!”

“Well then you're an asshole!”

Renjun stops in his tracks and fully turns to Jeno. “What's asshole about wanting to be with your friends?”

“It's asshole if your friends drag you down! You hang with us, you'll be just another wise guys with shit for brains.” Jeno protests and grasps his friend’s arm. “You could be a real writer someday, Renjun.”

The boy wiggles under the other’s grasp. “Fuck writing! I don't wanna be a writer! It's stupid! It's a stupid wasted time!”

“That's your dad talking.” Jeno says in a soft tone, just as soft as the way he stares at his friend.

“Bullshit.”

Jeno clicks his tongue and shakes Renjun’s petite body. “Bulltrue. I know how your dad feels about you, he doesn't give a shit about you. Sicheng was the one he cared about, and don't try to tell me different! You're just a kid, Renjun.”

The other rolls his eyes. “Oh gee, thanks, dad!”

“Wish the hell I was your dad. You wouldn't be going around talking about taking these stupid shop-courses if I was. It's like God gave you something, man.” He searches for Renjun’s eyes but the boy only ducks his head lower. “All those stories that you can make up…” He finally meets his friend’s gaze. “This is what God got for you, try not to lose it. But kids lose everything unless there's someone there to look after them. And if your parents are too fucked up to do it then maybe I should.”

Renjun stays silent, staring back at Jeno’s calming doe eyes.

“Come on you guys, let's get moving!” Donghyuck’s voice sounds and wakes them up from their little bubble.

“Yeah. By time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore!” Chenle adds.

 

 

“Any of you guys know when the next train is due?” Mark searches his friend’s eyes for an answer.

Jisung puts his hands on his hips. “We could go down to the route bridge.”

Jaemin smacks his shoulder at that. “What, are you crazy? That's five miles down the river. You walk five miles down the river you gotta walk five miles back. That could take till dark. If we'll go across here we'll get to the same place in ten minutes.”

“Yeah. But if a train comes there's nowheres to go.” Renjun scratches the back of his neck.

“Well, there isn't? You just jump down.” Donghyuck points at the river running under the tall bridge.

Mark rolls his eyes. “Hyuck that's a hundred feet.”

“Okay. You guys can go around if you want. I'm crossing here. And while you guys are dragging your candy-asses half way across the state and back I'll be waiting for you on the other side, relaxing with my thoughts!” He says just as he starts walking ahead in the direction of the bridge.

“You use your left hand or your right hand for that?” Jaemin teases right behind him.

Donghyuck turns to face him with a big sly smirk “You wish.”

 

It was all going amazing, they were more than halfway through the bridge and there had been no sign of a train yet. But, their luck obviously could not go that well. “TRAIN!” Renjun warns when he feels the tracks vibrate against the palm of his hand. “Chenle move!”

“Oh shit.” The other gulps loudly and tries his best to move as fast as possible.

“Go man, go man! Get up, Le! Dammit!” He helps Chenle up so that the boy would run instead of crawling all the way to the end.

“But I'm gonna fall!” He cries out and forces himself to run even though his whole body told him to stop fearing that his legs would somehow fall inside the cracks of the railway.

They run and run, Renjun would feel his heart in the back of his throat and his legs aching for him to stop but he couldn’t. The train was far too close to them for him to make any stops, all his energy had to go into running and pushing Chenle so the boy would run faster.

Just as the train gets close enough to almost scrape their back, they jump onto the side and escape their fatal ending. “Hey, at least now we know when the next train was due.” Jisung cracks a smile and helps Chenle up.

“Man. That was the old-time train-dodge. Too cool. Chenle you were so scared you looked like the fat guy in Abbot and Costello the time he saw the mummy.” Donghyuck giggles earning a glare from the younger.

“I wasn't that scared!” He protests but everyone ignores it. “No, really, I wasn't. Sincerely.”

 

 

“You got any more, Na?” Jeno asks Jaemin just as he finishes his last piece of meat.

The boy shoots him an apologetic look .”Sorry, Jeno.”

“It's not funny you guys, what am I supposed to eat now? Why did you eat it all?!” He huffs.

Donghyuck wiggles his eyebrows at him. “Why don't you eat your dick? It would be a small meal.”

Jeno flips him off. “Screw you.”

Minutes later the subject had totally changed, mostly because Chenle and Jisung always decided to have the weirdest discussions. “Alright, alright. Mickey's a mouse. Donald's a duck. Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?”

Jisung muses on the question and then clicks his tongue. “Goofy's a dog, he's definitely a dog.”

Renjun snorts. “He can't be a dog. Wears a hat and drives a car.”

“God, that's weird.” Donghyuck blinks at the floor in confusion. “What the hell is Goofy?”

It all comes to an end when the sound howling in the distance. “Oh my God!” Chenle flinches and jumps on top of Jisung who snakes his arms around his friend to hug him close full of fear himself.

“It's that Park kid. His ghost's out walking in the woods.” Donghyuck teases.

Chenle closes his eyes tightly. “I promise I'll hawk no more dirty books. I promise I won't say no more bad swears. I promise I'll eat all my broccoli!” The boy rambles.

“What is it, Mark?” Renjun asks calmly.

Mark shrugs and squints into the darkness. “Maybe it's coyotes.”

“It sounds like a woman screaming.” Jaemin mumbles to himself.

Donghyuck crawls closer to the two youngest. “It's not coyotes. It's his ghost!”

“Don't say that!” Jisung whimpers.

“Maybe we should stand guard.” Mark suggests.

Renjun nods right away. “Yeah, that's a good idea.”

Donghyuck slaps Jeno hand to grab his attention. “Gimme the gun. I'll take the first watch.”

 

“Twenty-three hundred hours. Corporal Donghyuck Lee stands guard. No sign of the enemy. The fort is secure.”

Renjun throws a nearby rock right at the boy’s feet. “Hey, Hyuck, cut it out! I’m trying to sleep!”

The boy ignores him, however. “The dogfaces rested easy. In the knowledge that Corporal Donghyuck Lee was protecting all of what scared them.”

“Donghyuck!”

 

Jeno frowns when Renjun starts whimpering in his sleep. “Are you okay?” He whispers when the other cracks one eye open.

“Huh?”

“You were dreaming.”

Renjun look up at the sky in silence and then drifts his eyes in Jeno’s direction. “I didn't cry at Sicheng's funeral. I miss him, Jeno. I really miss him.”

Jeno sighs deeply and munches on the insides of his mouth. “I know. Go back to sleep.”

However Renjun seems unable to fall back into deep sleep like before, it was like his brain kept forcing his eyes to open no matter how many times he closed them.

“Maybe you could go into the College-courses with me.” He blurts out, eyes closed once again.

Jeno chuckles. “Yeah, as if.”

“Why not? You're smart enough.”

“They won't let me.”

Renjun cracks one of his eyes open to look at his friend with a puzzled expression. “What d'you mean?”

He shrugs. “It's the way people think of my family in this town. It's the way they think of me. Just one of those lowlifes.”

Renjun sits up and turns to Jeno. “That's not true.”

“Oh it is. No one even asked me if I took the milkmoney that time. I just got a three-day vacation and that was that.” Jeno pokes the dirt with a stick to channel out hid frustration.

“Well, did you take it?”

The boy looks at Renjun and then huffs. “Yeah I took it. You knew I took it. Marm knew I took it. Everyone knew I took it. Even Jisung knew it I think.” He shrugs and stabs the floor angrily. “And maybe I was sorry and I tried to give it back…”

“Tried to give it back?”

“Maybe, just maybe.” He mumbles softly. “And maybe I took it to Old Lady Kim and told her, and the money was all there. But I still got a three-day vacation because it never showed up. And maybe the next week Old lady Kim had that brand new skirt on when she came to school.”

Renjun munches on his bottom lip and looks down at the ground to hide the pity dancing in his eyes, he knew Jeno absolutely hated it whenever they'd pity him. “Yeah. It was brown and had dots on it.”

“Yeah. So let's just say that I stole the milk money but Old Lady Kim stole it back from me. Just suppose that I told the story. Me, Jeno Lee, kid brother of the Jaehyun. You think that anybody would have believed it?”

His friend shakes his head. “No.”

Jeno breaks the twig in half. “And d'you think that that bitch would have dared try something like that if it would have been one of those pussies from that fancy neighbourhood if they had taken the money?”

“No way.” Renjun whisper yells and then puts his hand on top of Jeno’s.

“Oh no! But with me! I'm sure she had her eyes on that skirt for a long time.” Jeno closes his eyes and tries to breathe in slowly to calm down but tears were already starting to run down his red cheeks. “Anyway she saw her chance and she took it. I was the stupid one for even trying to give it back. I never thought that a teacher…” His voice fades, like it too had admitted defeat and then a single sob rips through the silence. “Who gives a fuck anyway? I just wish I could go to some place where nobody knows me. I guess I'm just a pussy as well, Renjun.”

The other squeezes Jeno’s hand reassuringly. “No way, you aren't a pussy. I promise, you aren't. ”

 

 

“Gee, Jun. Why couldn't you get some breakfast stuff like twinkies and root beer?”

Renjun glares at Donghyuck. “Sorry, I guess some more experienced shopper could have gotten more for your seven cents.”

Even with their stomachs rumbling the boys pressed on toward the Royal River. The reality of Park Jihoon was growing and keeping then moving despite the heat. For Renjun, the idea of seeing that kid's dead body was starting to become an obsession, he deep down knew the other’s were just as anxious and excited as he was.

“I hate this shortcut.” Chenle grumbles lowly whne he sees the little lake ahead. “How are we supposed to get across this?”

Donghyuck ties his friend’s arms behind his back. “We use you as a raft.”

“Very funny.” The boy chokes out and wiggles his way out of Donghyuck’s hold.

Jaemin pokes a stick inside. “Hey, it's not that deep, we can walk across.”

Chenle sighs loudly at the realisation of what they we're about to do. “Told you we should've stuck to the tracks.”

“Is it me or are you the world's biggest pussy?” Donghyuck says while starting to walks towards the water.

“I suppose this is fun for you.” Chenle rolls his eyes behind him.

“No,” He turns around and grabs the other’s shirt. “but this is!” Donghyuck exclaims just as he shoves the younger inside the water.

Mark swims past them and sighs deeply eith disappointment “Come on Hyuck, act your age…”

“This is my age!” He shouts dramatically. “I'm in the prime of my youth and I'll only be young once!”

“Yeah, but you're gonna be stupid for the rest of your life.” Renjun whispers a bit too loudly.

“Oh-oh, Huang you just signed your own death-warrant!” Donghyuck threatens and starts swimming after him as quickly as he could manage. “Hey, where're you think you're going?!”

“Yeah, Huang.” Jaemin butts in and tries chasing down after him for no reason at all, he just found amusement in teasing Renjun.

“Come on you guys.” He breathes out already out of the lake. The rest join him minutes later and start trying to dry everything up slightly. “Chenle, there's something on your neck!”

Said boy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, right. I'm not falling for that one.”

Mark eyes the boy’s neck and his eyes widen when he also sees it. “No, there is actually something on your neck.”

“It's a leech. Leeches! Jesus Christ! Get them off!” Jisung screeches and they all start throwing their clothes somewhere on the ground to try and remove the tiny creatures off their bodies the faster they could.

Jeno turns to Renjun and points to his back. “Hey, Injun there's some on your back!”

The boy whimpers and starts jumping up and down. “Get them off!”

Jeno comes closer and quickly gets rid of any leeches that he could see. “Are there any on mine then?” Renjun and Jaemin shake their heads and so he releases a sigh of relief.

“Oh no. Oh shit, Jeno. Oh shit, man.” Renjun mumbles and peeks inside his boxers, hands trembling with fear.

The boys look at him with worry, Jisung lets out a tiny cry when he sees Renjun’s bloody fingers and, the next thing they know, Renjun collapses onto the floor. “Hey man, are you okay? Can you hear me? Renjun, are you there?”

Chenle smacks the boy’s forearm and then scratches the top of his head. “Maybe he's dead.”

“He's not dead, he's still breathing, you idiot.” Donghyuck snarls and pushes past him to get a closer look.

“Well I don't know!”

Mark hits the back of both of their heads. “Hey. Just cool you guys, he just fainted.”

“God, I never met anybody who fainted before.” Chenle mumbles and stares at Renjun as if he was an enchanted creature from a whole different universe parallel to theirs.

Donghyuck snorts. “Maybe he made a bad mistake and looked at your face.”

Jeno pushes both of them away and looks at Mark who had just finished analysing their friend to make sure nothing was terribly wrong with him, the other nods to reassure Jeno that Renjun was in fact alright. “Shut up, Hyuck.” He glares at the boy and turns back to his friend laying on the ground who already had started opening his eyes. “You okay, Injun?”

“Yeah.” He says weakly and rubs his face.

 

Renjun leans against the tree in silence, mind blank to forget about the incident of before. His body still hurt, his pride too, he couldn’t bare think too much of it. “Maybe we should take Renjun back.” Jeno suggests.

“Oh great, Lee, now you're turning into a pussy too!” Donghyuck whines.

“What's your problem, dude? He had a leech hanging from his balls! He fainted!” Jaemin cuts and shoots the boy an angry look.

“What are you, his mother?”

“Eat shit!” Jeno and Jaemin say at the same time.

Donghyuck raises his fist up high and pokes his tongue out. “You eat shit!”

“I think they’re right. Let's go back.” Chenle says while adjusting his bag on his shoulder nervously.

“Oh, what a surprise, the king of the pussies wants to go back too!”

Chenle glares at the other and scrunches up his nose, an attempt to look intimidating that only makes Donghyuck cackle. “Stop calling me that!”

“Well, pussy.”

“Stop it.”

“Pussy.”

“Stop it!”

Donghyuck smirks and comes so close that the tip of their noses brushed against each other. “Pussy, pussy, pussy!” He yells in a crescendo.

“You four-eyed psycho!” The younger growls and throws his friend on the floor violently.

Renjun closes his eyes and breathes out loudly. “Stop it.” He says. “Stop it.” Louder, so that not only him could hear it. “STOP IT!” He shouts making everyone halt and look at him filled with curiosity and shock. “I'm not going back.”

The boy doesn’t even look back as he proceeds to continue down the pathway. He didn’t know exactly why he needed to see that body so badly but that seemed to be the only thing on his mind. Even if no one would’ve followed, Renjun would’ve still continued on his own. His brain had already settled on it and he wasn’t about to give up after all the trouble they had gone through till then.

 

 

“This the Back Harlow road?” Jisung asks while looking at his surroundings.

“Yeah.” Mark confirms.

“That Parker kid must be round here some place. Donghyuck, you, Jisung and Chenle watch the left side of the tracks, we'll take the right.” Jeno commands and surprisingly doesn’t get backlash from Donghyuck for being put with the two youngest, probably because neither Jeno nor Renjun looked like they were up for goofy talks. Renjun especially looked like he would snap his head in half if he dared say something remotely funny.

They look around in silence, nobody felt like talking much anymore. Things were starting to get real, anytime soon they’d find the missing boy, his lifeless body was hidden somewhere waiting to be found and the thought of it made chills run down their spine.

“There he is! I see him! Look! Look over there! I see him! I see him!” Chenle chirps and steps back to let Donghyuck do the honours. Everyone gathers together and hesitantly walks closer to the body, none of them could breathe.

Donghyuck’s breath hitches. “Jesus.” He lets out after moving the vegetation hiding he boy out of the way. The kid wasn't sick, the kid wasn't sleeping. The kid was dead. It just wouldn’t sink in anyone’s head that the person in front of them was real, dead even.

“Let's look for some long branches. We'll build him a stretcher.” Jaemin proposes, everyone nods and gets to work but Renjun who instead sits on a big rock nearby and stares at Jihoon with empty eyes.

Jeno, noticing his friend had not budged, decides to leave his work for the rest to make sure Renjun was okay. “Injun?”

The boy doesn’t look away. “Why did you have to die?” He mumbles so lowly that Jeno barely catches what he had said.

“What's the matter with Jun?” Jisung asks a few meters away from them.

Jeno waves his hand. “Nothing. Why don't you guys just go for some long branches, okay?” Jisung pouts but nods nevertheless and goes back to work.

“Why did he have to die, Jeno? Why did Sicheng have to die? Why?” Renjun sobs loudly and hides his face with his knees. His whole body shook every time a loud sob ripped through him, Jeno wanted nothing less but to hold him close, and so he does. “It should have been me.”

Jeno frowns and presses his mouth on the top of his friend’s head. “Don't say that.”

“I'm no good. My dad said it, I'm no good.” Renjun rambles on, voice muffled but clear enough for Jeno to decipher what he was saying.

“He doesn't know you.”

“He hates me.”

Jeno squeezes Renjun’s tiny frame closer. “No, listen to me, he just doesn't know you.”

Renjun shakes his head violently, the sobbing just gets louder and louder. “He hates me. My dad hates me. He hates me, oh God.”

“You gonna be a great writer someday, Jun. You might even write about us guys if you ever get hard up for material.” Jeno says trying to lighten up the mood, and it thankfully seems to work because Renjun stops sobbing.

“Guess I'd have to be really hard up, huh?” Renjun finally looks up at his friend with a faint smile on his face.

Something, rather someone, makes them flinch apart before Jeno could even reply. “What the fuck do you know about this?” Doyoung quirks his eyebrow and chuckles lowly.

Jaehyun glares at Jeno who glares right back. “Son of a bitch, my little brother!”

“You wasn't planning taking the body from us, was you, boys?” Doyoung walks closer with a fake smile and looks to the side towards Jihoon’s lifeless body.

Jeno lets go off Renjun completely and stands up. “You get away man. We found him and we got dibs.”

“Ahh!” The older pretends to be scared and then snorts. “You better start running, Jae, they got dibs!”

“We earned him, man. You guys came in a car that's not fair, he's ours!”

“You guys have two choices. Either leave quietly and we take the body. Or you stay. We'll beat the shit outta you and we take the body.” Doyoung shrugs and looks at his nails. “You chose.”

Jeno growls and looks over to his friends who were all bundled together like a bunch of scared little kittens. “Ours.”

“Okay, Lee, you little faggot. This is your last chance.”

“Why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more.” He spits out.

Doyoung starts running in his direction but Jeno holds on still. “You're dead.”

“Come on, Jeno, let's split.” Donghyuck’s voice sounds from somewhere to his side but he’s not listening to anything being said.

Jeno shakes his head stubbornly. “They're not taking him.”

“Come on, man, that's crazy. He's got a knife, dude!” This time it was Jaemin pleading for him to budge and let go, yet Jeno still refused.

“You're gonna have to kill me, Doyoung.”

The older laughs, maniacally so. “No problem!”

Just as he was about to get his hands on the boy, a gunshot sounds making everyone stop in their tracks. “You're not taking him. Nobody is taking him.” Renjun snarls, gun pointed in Doyoung’s direction.

The other returns back to normal from the initial shock and chuckles. “Come on kid, just give me the gun before you take your foot off.”

“Move Doyoung. I'll kill you I swear to God.”

“Come on, Huang, gimme the gun.” He demands once again. “You must have at least some of your brother's good sense.”

The mention of his brother only makes his blood boil faster. “Suck my fat one you cheap dime-store hood.” He says between his teeth and moves the gun higher with his shaky hands.

Doyoung clicks his tongue and tilts his head. “Are you going to shoot us all?”

“No Doyoung, just you.” He says, steadily, the total opposite of how nervous he truly felt inside.

“We're gonna get you for this.” The older finally gives in after seconds of considering if it was worth the fuss, he didn’t exactly plan on getting shot just yet.

Renjun shrugs. “Maybe you will, maybe you won't.”

Doyoung, who had already turned his back to him, stops and turns around again. “Oh we will. We're not gonna forget this if that's what you think. This is big time, baby.” And with that, both males disappear in the woods from where they had showed up.

It’s silent for many long minutes until Jeno scoffs and looks at Renjun. ”Suck my fat one? Who ever told you had a fat one, Huang?”

The boy smirks. “Biggest one in four counties.” He jokes.

Silence again and then they all turn to the peaceful body still laying on the same spot. “We're gonna take him.” Donghyuck breaks the silence.

Renjun shakes his head. “No.”

“But we came all this way. We're supposed to be heroes.”

“Not this way, Hyuck.” He walks past the boy and pushes him away from Jihoon.

Park Jihoon’s body was found. But neither Renjun’s gang nor Doyoung’s got the credit. In the end Mark decided that an anonymous phone-call was the best thing to do and so they headed home. And although many thoughts raced through their minds they barely spoke. The boys walked through the night and made it back a little past five o'clock on Sunday morning, the day before Labor Day. It had only been two days since they had left but somehow the town seemed different. Smaller.

“Well. See you in school.” Jisung announces and grabs Chenle for them to walk home together.

“Yeah.” The others say at the same time

“Oh guys I better get home before my mom puts me out on ten most wanted list.” Donghyuck snorts. “Hey Jeno? No hard feelings, okay?”

The boy shoots him a big grin and shakes his head. “No way, man.”

 

As time went on Renjun saw less and less of the rest of the group until eventually they became just two more faces in the halls. That happens sometimes, friends come in and out of your life like busboys in a restaurant.

“I'm never gonna get out of this town, am I, Injun?” Jeno breathes out as they stare down at their little town from the top of a hill.

Renjun drifts his eyes towards his friend. “You can do anything you want, man.” The other stays silent, thinking. Of what exactly Renjun wouldn’t know. “I'll see you.”

Jeno smiles softly and Renjun copies the gesture right away. “Not if I see you first.”

Jeno did get out. He enrolled in the College-courses with Renjun and although it was hard he gutted it out like he always did. He went on  to College and eventually became a lawyer. Last week he entered a fast food restaurant, just ahead of him, two men got into an argument. One of them pulled a knife and Jeno, who would always make the best peace, tried to break it up. He was stabbed in the throat. He died almost instantly.

 

Renjun looks at his computer screen, a nostalgic smile slowly forms as he finishes typing. **_Although I haven't seen him in more than ten years I know I'll miss him forever. I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anybody?_**

**Author's Note:**

> [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/aquadons)  [twitter](https://mobile.twitter.com/ultraviolentae)


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